The $500,000,000 "down payment"

Here in Ft. Wayne, a community of 205,000 (2000 census), the school board recently approved $500,000,000 to improve the schools. Yes, the zeros are correct. That's half a billion. The money is not for the education for the students in the schools mind you – it's for the school houses themselves. As a newcomer to Ft. Wayne, I asked how can the schools get half a billion behind in repairs? There is, of course, no good answer. Nobody, like for instance the over-paid school superintendent, has a clue. The super did say that the $500,000,000 was only a “down payment” on the work that must be done. $500,000,000 equates to an additional $300 in property taxes per 100K of home value for homeowners.

Now any home owner knows how this kind of thing happens. The back porch starts to show signs of wear; but instead of painting it, you buy a new stereo. Then the wood begins to rot; but instead of repairing it, you get the big TV. Next thing you know, one of the kids has fallen through the deck. Now the whole thing has to be pulled down and started again from scratch – at a much greater expense than fixing it when the trouble first began. How does that old saying go, a stitch in time...costs $500,000,000...no wait that's not it.

Well, I’ve been to a few a of the Ft. Wayne schools, and at first glance they do not look too bad – carpet, new gym, new football stadiums, computers in every room in addition to a computer lab. Then there are the extra-curricular activities that soak up money. Recently a high school was in trouble because the school newspaper ran an article about tolerating a student who apparently came out of the closet and announced he was gay.

First, if the schools are broke, why are they wasting tax payer money publishing a student newspaper? Next, why are high schoolers being burdened with the sexuality crisis of one of their classmate? Is there not one thing that we DON’T need to know about one another? When the principal of the school ordered all future content of the paper to be screened by him, all he** broke loose. He’s racist, bigot, homophobe, fascist. No he’s not, not at all. He’s probably concerned that kids ought to be allowed to be kids. If one student, out of a couple of hundred, is having problems with his sexual identity, that seems a problem for the boy, his parents and whatever professional help they decide to get for the lad, NOT THE SCHOOL.

Last, why is there a separate building for middle school? Why can’t the elementary schools be used K-8? The Ft. Wayne phonebook shows ten middle schools and 35 elementary schools in the Ft. Wayne community school system. How much would it cost to expand the classrooms in the elementary schools to accommodate middle schools? How much would be saved by closing the ten middle schools?

I taught young Lex how to read, write, add, subtract, multiply and divide at the same 100+ year old oak table his grandpa ate dinner at when he was boy. That instruction, besides a bit of frustration from time to time, cost me next to nothing. Now Ft. Wayne needs $500,000,000 for the schools. For what, printing presses to trumpet the gay rights of high school kids?